Saturday, August 10, 2013

Prom Date

G.L. Snodgrass

My life was officially over. I wanted to crawl into a hole
and pull the earth over me like a blanket. The only thing that stopped me from
slitting my wrists was the thought of strangling Danny O’Brian with my bare
hands. Who cancels a prom date an hour before the big night?

My mind flew a thousand miles a minutes to all the terrible
things I could do to him. This was supposed to be my big moment. Walking into
the ball room on Danny O’Brian’s arm would have cancelled out some pretty
crummy high school years.

“Why me!” I yelled as
I cried into my pillow. The tears flowed like wine at a wedding. Something else
I would probably never get to experience. Why do things like this always happen
to me?

Freshman year I’d been too shy to even think about going. In
sophomore year no one had asked. Flat chested bean poles like me weren’t asked
to fancy things like the prom. In junior year a bunch of us wall flowers were
going to go together but I broke my ankle playing volleyball and I wouldn’t be
caught dead at prom walking around on crutches. Only my friend Mary Hopkins
even knew I wasn’t there.

Senior year had been different. I’d come into my own.
Blossomed as mom liked to say. Things
had gotten all curvy like they were supposed to. They must have started working
because I seemed to have caught the eye of the star quarterback and school hunk
Danny O’Brian.

You could have rolled me up and mailed me to Wisconsin when
he asked me to the prom. My mouth dropped open and my heart stopped beating.
Danny O’Brian asked me to the prom.

I’d squeaked out a yes before running all the way home to
tell my mom. Then flew over to Mary’s house to tell her. Being the bestest of
best friends she had squealed and jumped up and down with me as we totally lost
it.

Life was perfect. Chrissy Thompson, the school bitch and my
personnel nemesis would see me walk in with Danny. I know she’d see us because
she’d be monitoring everybody. Categorizing what they wore, judging and
commenting to her pal gals about what a terrible color this girl wore. Or how
sad it was that so and so couldn’t find a date. All the time secretly squealing
with glee at other people’s misery.

Of course I told everyone that Danny and I would be going to
the prom together. There had been quite a few shocked expressions and weak
congratulations. I had filed every one of those looks away in my memory box and
marked the folder “Pure Glee.”

You know the feeling of being on top of the world. Of being
in that place that everyone else wishes they could be. That was my life for the
last month.

Mom, Mary, and I had spent hours shopping for just the right
dress. I couldn’t stop giggling and laughing as we went from store to store.
Mom had been patient. Standing to the side, never criticizing but somehow
letting me know what worked and what didn’t work.

I finally found the perfect sky blue dress that matched my
eyes. Low cut back and spaghetti straps. It fit me perfectly. They wouldn’t
even have to alter it. I looked like I was ready to step onto the red carpet at
the Oscars. I couldn’t wait to watch Danny’s eyes when he saw me in that dress.
I couldn’t wait for Chrissy Jensen to see me. No way was there anything wrong
with that dress.

Instead, no one would ever see it.

I started to ball my eyes out again when mom knocked gently coming
into my room.“I’m so sorry honey,” she
said as she gently rubbed my back.

“Why Mom? Why always
me?” I mumbled through a snotty nose.

“Oh honey,” she said, rubbing a little harder as if she
could push aside my pain and humiliation. “Someday, this won’t seem so
important.”

“Oh mom,” I yelled before throwing myself back onto my
pillow.

She stopped rubbing for a second then said, “Can’t you go by
yourself. You can borrow the car.”

“Mom, you don’t get it,” I cried again into the pillow.

“What about Mary, could you go with her?”

“Mom,” I said, my voice getting exasperated. “Mary is going
with Troy. No way am I tagging along as a third wheel. It’s her special night
too.”

My phone ringing on the bedside table saved her from driving
the spike in any deeper. She got up and left me. Looking back with a face narrowed
in concern. I know her heart broke for me. My mom’s pretty cool like that. You
know she cares. I also know that she can be a bit of a lioness at times. Danny O’Brian had better not cross her path or
he would find himself missing a couple of key assets from between his legs.

I picked up my phone.

“I just heard, Oh my god. What a douche.” Mary said before I
could even say hello.

“How is that possible, I only found out a few minutes ago?”
I said between sniffles.

“Danny told John who told his girlfriend Marla. She called
Sandy who called me.”

Great, everyone now knew about my humiliation. I wasn’t even
allowed time to wallow in my misery before everyone wanted to stand around and
watch.

“Did he say why?” Mary asked.

“No in so many words,” is said. “I’m pretty sure it’s
because I told him I wouldn’t go to the hotel with him after the dance.”

“What, he wanted you to go to a hotel.”

“Yeah, a week ago he told me to make sure and tell my
parents that I would be out all night and not to expect me back till the next
morning.”

“What’d you say,” Mary asked.

“I told him I wasn’t comfortable doing that. We hadn’t known
each other long enough. You know the normal excuses. No way was my first time
going to be in the Ramada Inn after prom. I mean how cliché can you get.”

“Why didn’t you tell me,” she said.

“I don’t know. He didn’t press the matter and I figured it
was all over with. The first hint I got that he wasn’t happy about it was the
phone call a few minutes ago.”

“Wow, what a douche.”

I laughed. Mary is such a good friend. We had known each other
since before kindergarten. Her family lived two doors down and our mothers were
best friends. We were closer than sisters. We never fought. Well almost never,
and when we did it was almost always my fault.

“What are you going to do?” She said before pausing a
moment. “Do you want to come with Troy and me?”

I almost accepted. I so desperately wanted to go that I
almost ruined my best friend’s prom night. Troy was a nice guy and he’d have
tried to make it work. No way was I doing that to Mary.

“No that’s okay. Thanks anyway. I’ll just curl up on the
couch with a gallon of Haagen-Dazs and think evil thoughts about Danny O’Brian
and what I’m going to do to him in the next life.I won’t have an opportunity in this life if
my mom ever gets a hold of him.”

She laughed. That’s the thing about Mary; she’ll laugh like
your making a joke even when you’re dead serious.

“Oh my god, I’ve got it,” she yelled into the phone. “Oh
this is perfect. My brother can take you. He’s even got something to wear.”

My stomach dropped. Mary’s little brother Jimmy was barely
sixteen and a pimply faced sophomore. He was a nice kid but I didn’t know about
going to the prom with him. The only thing worse would be showing up alone.

“I don’t know Mary… I uh.”

“No, this is perfect, he’s always liked you and he owes me
big time.”

Great, now I was a mercy date for a sophomore. How bad could
it get?

Mary must have sensed my hesitation because she pulled out the
big guns. “I need you there Emily. No way am I facing Chrissy Thompson alone.”

“Well, uh…. I.”

“Great, I’ll have him there in forty five minutes. We can
meet up at the dance and we’ll have a great time. You’ll see. Thanks Emily, you
won’t regret it,” she said before quickly hanging up so that I couldn’t change
my mind.

“MOM,” I yelled down the stairs. “Mary’s little brother’s
taking me, I need to get ready.” I had forty minutes to get dressed and somehow
cover up these blotchy eyes. I looked like a raccoon on crack.

Mom pulled her normal motherly miracle and got me to look
halfway decent. She did something with alternating warm and cold towels to my
face and then just the right amount of makeup that even I couldn’t tell I’d
spent the afternoon crying enough to fill Lake Ontario.

I slipped on my dress then the absolutely gorgeous heels and
closely examined myself in the mirror. Not bad I thought. Granted, everyone would
know that Danny O’Brian had dumped me hours before the dance. At least they’d
know it wasn’t because of my looks.

Smiling to myself for the first time that night. My stomach
dropped when I thought about Jimmy Hopkins. “Oh well, beggars can’t be choosey”
I thought.

I was transferring a few things to my clutch purse when mom
walked in and said, “I thought you might want to borrow these?” A pair of one
carat diamond earrings rested in the palm of her hand. Dad had given them to
her on their twentieth anniversary. “They are only a loan; if you lose them you
will go ahead of Danny O’Brian on my crap list. Get it?”

“Oh Mom, their beautiful,” I said fastening the posts. “Are
you sure? They are so perfect.”

“Yes they are,” she said with a huge smile. “Now finish up.
Jimmy should be here in a moment.”

My stomach dropped again. Every time I thought about walking
into the room with Jimmy Hopkins I got a sad feeling. There was nothing wrong
with Jimmy, except for being two years younger and an inch shorter than me.
That and the fact that he had to be forced by his sister to take me. When you
added all that to the fact of how I had bragged about going with Danny. I felt
like such a fool.

Forcing a smile onto my face I went downstairs to wait.
Butterflies kept erupting. I knew there would be some snickering behind hands
and probably the occasional rude comment. But I could put up with it for a
night. After all, some day this wasn’t going to matter. Yeah keep telling yourself
that Emily, I thought. It might help you make it through the night.

Jimmy was late of course. Mary had probably had to hit him
over the head to get him to go. How did the kid even have a tux? I know for a
fact that Mary had told me last week that he wasn’t going. Jesus, please don’t
let him show up in a suite. Or worse his dad’s suite? Would Mary do that to me?

My palms began to sweat. What if he didn’t come? Great a
minute ago I was terrified of walking in with Jimmy Hopkins now’s I’m
frightened I’m going to be stood up.

The door bell rang. Mom rushed to get it while I stood there
waiting. She opened the door and my mouth hit the floor.

Jack Hopkins, Mary’s OLDER brother stood there in a heart
stopping full dress Marine uniform. A black tunic and snow white belt. Sky blue
pants with a red stripe down the sides. White gloves and three shinny medals on
his chest perfected the look. He reminded me of a movie poster of what a manly
Marine was supposed to look like. Wide shoulders that tapered down to a narrow
waste. My god he was gorgeous.

“Jack,” I exclaimed, “I didn’t know you were back.” He was
on his second tour in Afghanistan and wasn’t due back for another month.

“I got back a couple of days ago,” he said stepping into the
house. His pristine white hat carried under his arm. He was as straight as an
ironing board as his eyes traveled over me and lit up as if he liked what he
saw.

“I asked my family to
keep it quiet. I needed a few days to adjust. Mary only agreed if I owed her a
huge favor.”

“Oh my god. You’re taking me to the prom.” I said not even
believing my own words.

“Ms. Carter, will you please allow me to escort you to the
prom,” he said with a little bow.

My heart skipped and all of the butterflies fell from the
sky in a dead faint. Mary Hopkins, I am going to owe you for the rest of my
life.

“Yes Jack, I would love to go with you to the prom,” I said
slipping my arm into his.

.o0o.

Some things in life are better than you expect. Needless to
say my prom night was great before I even left the house.The only thing better was the look on Chrissy
Thompson’s face as I walked in on Corporal Hopkins arm.